I have this little thing when I walk dogs. Call me odd, but I just don't like being pulled along, or having my arm yanked off. It's a bit painful. But hey, that's just me!
I have three dogs. One is a small rat terrier (Arlen), who is strong as anything! One is a lab (Cara) and the other is a husky mix. (Sonny.) Even though Arlen is 1/4 of the size of the other two, he is just as strong and feisty at times. Arlen was so stubborn with his training in fact, we had to take him to training classes. Even then, we got him moderately under control and just decided it was best to move out to the country.
On Halloween, we took Cara and Sonny trick or treating with us. Cara was pulling and yanking like crazy! She's like me, I think, and doesn't like crowds. We traded leashes, and gave her the shorter wider one, and she was fine. Sonny's was deceptively well behaved Halloween night. I think he was just too distracted by everything going on to actually act up.
Now, I also must explain a bit about my husband too. My husband is tall, and thin. He's a bit wirely and he's got the upper arm strenghth of well... he doesn't have any upper arm strength. What do you expect? I married a computer geek! He's also extremely loving and cavalier. He knows that if I'm being pulled around by a dog, it's going to ruin my mood. So, he usually takes Sonny.
Sonny. The one that was very well behaved Halloween night. Last week, to help the kids out, Honey and I decided we'd walk the dogs for them on Monday. We get them on their leashes and walk out the door. ZOOOOOMMMM!!!!! Sonny is howling and dragging poor Honey down the road. He's pulling Honey just as hard as he can, and poor Honey is trying to use his upper arm strength and upper leg strength to hold this guy back. Finally, he gets his heels dug into the ground and manages to stop the dog. They turn around and come home.
I sighed and promised to work with him more. Meanwhile, Cara is walking just as sweet as can be just a step ahead of me. She's being careful to not tug the leash.
And again, yesterday, we took the animals to Petco to get groomed. Here is purely perfect Sonny, behaving as he should. I go into the office area to sign them in, and my back is turned. And there goes poor Honey! He's being dragged all over the place, and Sonny starts jumping all over him. The other two start to think it's play time and they start in also.
Of course, I come out of the office, and all of the animals just stop and sit down, even Sonny. "Oh yeah! She comes out and you decide to behave!"
"Well, of course," I tell him. "I don't let them act stupid so they know who their Alpha is." He gives me this look that is a cross between the glare of death, and 'please, help me!'
One by one, the animals go in to wait for their turn on the groomer's table. When all are in, we go run our errands and return. When we pick them up, they are again, bouncing around but this time because they had to pee pretty badly. Oldest takes Cara, middle child takes Arlen, and husband takes Sonny outside while I wrap up. I see them through the giant windows and there is Sonny, yet again dragging the husband all over the place. Honey has this look on his face that says "Please hurry and rescue me!"
On a table I find one simple leash. It's six feet long, and about two inches wide. But it has two handles. One at the end of the leash, and one that is a bit less than one foot away from the collar. I snap that sucker on to Sonny, and suddenly, he doesn't even think about trying to pull me! I bought two. One to train each big dog.
Of course, Honey will probably still be dragged a bit. lol But for $18 bucks per leash, we may be able to get him just a bit more under control!
Did I really just write about leashes? Eeesh!
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